The Second World War, as had the First, highlighted Britain’s dangerous dependence on imports of food and wood, making us vulnerable to naval blockades. There had been heavy felling to meet the war effort – depending on the source between a third and half of woods had some felling in them, and in places whole… Continue reading From the dark to the light

Fire is a major driver of forest dynamics and helps determine the structure and composition of continental forests of pine and spruce. Evidence that natural fires were an important factor in the history of the Scottish native pinewoods is more limited: in our Atlantic climate, the chances of lightning setting off a fire without it then… Continue reading Fire down below

I recently went back to the corner of Essex where I grew up, a roughly 30 x 30 km square defined by Epping in the top left corner and Orsett in the bottom right. Forty-five years on I see it in a different light. We regularly visited Hainault Forest on the way to see dad’s… Continue reading Back to my roots